Monday, February 25, 2008

Well, as we draw nearer to the wedding, I am participating in something I should not be- eating...

First of all, what was I thinking? A few months ago, someone came around with a cute little catalog and I hardly EVER participate, so I said "what the hay?" and I did. Here is what I received on Friday....

I'm not at all sure what I was thinking- but they are the Breakfast of Champions!

Last night's dinner was gooooood. First I made a pan fried steak- seasoned with Italian salad dressing. Yum.

But the real star of the show were the garlic mashed potatoes. I got this recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks! Blog, and modified it a bit. First of all, do you know how to roast garlic? No? Then you are missing out! If you are married, you'll be a hero and if you're not married, you will be by the end of this year.

First- grab a casserole dish or something you can bake in. Drizzle the bottom with olive oil. Then get three or four whole garlic pieces - like the big cluster thing that's so hard to peel. All you are going to do it take the top (where it comes to a little point) and cut it off, so the tops of the little garlic heads are exposed. Lay them in the pan, topside up, and drizzle the garlic heads with olive oil too. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400 for an hour.

When you are done let them cool- and when you can touch them, grab them by the bottom and squeeze and all the little roasted garlic pieces just POP out and they are so soft and yummy!

Ok- now that's done... you can boil up some potatoes. While that's happening I put 1/2 of a package of cream cheese, a dash of milk or heavy cream and about 3TBSP of stick butter at the bottom of a dish. When your potatoes are boiled and drained, poor them HOT on top of the other ingredients. Start mashing- and buy a masher. I did this for the first time and it was WAY better than my whipped potatoes using a mixer. Just mash, mash, mash and get all that mixed up. Then grab one of your garlic clusters, and squeeze from the bottom, til all the little pieces pop out- mash those up too. I used ONE head of garlic for this, but depending on your tastes, add two, if you like.

SO GOOD! I made enough to use later in the week for when I make meatloaf. How lucky is Conrad?! I'm so turning into Paula Deen!